tedster - 2:42 am on Mar 18, 2007 (gmt 0)

I agree, annej. These patents do point to anchor text as an on-page factor, so it may well be in play. One way or another it has always been a factor anyway, even before these specific patents.

The powerful on-page influence of anchor text is often not considered by webmasters - and it's relatively easy to overstuff a phrase on the page that way, especially when you first "get" that anchor text affects the target page as an off-page factor.